It may have been the most important move choreographer Paul Taylor has ever made. Early on, he was thought to be the heir to Martha Graham, a pioneer of modern dance he played, and although paradoxically, he was properly considered a rebel as a modernist heir. Was there. His rebellious move in 1962 was more contrarian than calculation, dancing to Handel’s non-modern, ear-friendly music. This dance was very light and lyrical and almost ballet.
This is “Aureol”, a work that discovered how Taylor became popular, and was not only the mainstream of modern dance, but also the cornerstone of the process of participation.
All three programs Paul Taylor Dance Company “Aureole” is being performed at the Joyce Theater at the end of this week. And, often performed, it’s a permanently satisfying structure, formal yet playful like the playfulness after the church, and fresh like clean linen.
There are also two premierees by choreographers other than Taylor, who died in 2018. However, some have not been seen for more than 60 years, as revealed by the reconstruction of the work Taylor made before “Aureol”. They can get a glimpse of Taylor as a vanguard, the untaken path, and his lessons learned in radical and popular ways.
One piece, “Event II,” comes from Taylor’s infamous “Seven New Dances” concert in 1957. This was a series of experiments based on the avant-garde spirit of the 1950s, in line with the idea of composer John Cage. Someone who provided music that many didn’t think of as music, and Robert Rauschenberg, a friend of Taylor’s artist who provided the live dog as a set piece.
Taylor danced a 20-minute solo to a female recording that announces the time every 10 seconds. He showed off a four-minute duet with no one moving. The house was empty before the first work was finished. Louis Horst, chief arbiter of modern dance and one of Taylor’s teachers, reviewed it in a blank column. There are no reviews of what he thought wasn’t dance.
“Event II” is not one of the most notorious selections. To the sound of the rain, two women (Elan Bugge and the quietly captivating Jada Pearman) stand in different postures while the breeze blows into their 1950s dresses. This is an art discovered, and Taylor draws our attention to the neglected beauty of the usual gestures of people on the street. It also, like the image of Edward Hopper, like a picture, with his arms crossed and his head tilted, telling the character and the mystery.
“Event II” is just a sketch or study, but it shows what Taylor learned from the experiment. What I tried to present as a posture without emotional meaning was read as a dramatic gesture. It is a discovery that goes through his rest of the work, and even “Aureol”, along with the importance of the negative space of painting and the tranquility of dance, such as the silence of music.
Old works are full of such discoveries, the feeling that Taylor finds himself. My favorite was a solo excerpt from the 1958 “Images and Reflections”. A man (John Harnage) who blooms with a fringe designed by Rauschenberg stretches his wings. A woman with too many tulle (Kristin Draucker) plays a slow-motion version of Swim and a ballroom dance. Like Morton Feldman’s score, these solos are more than just a prophecy of the Judson Dance Theater in the 1960s. They could be the work of modern post-modernists like Beth Gil.
The “fiber” from 1961, when Taylor was still dancing for Graham, is still entwined in her aesthetics. It is a mask primitivist ritual with an iconic tree and lots of Graham’s vocabulary. The current cast (except Lisa Boles) seemed completely unsure of what to do, but Taylor found an error in Graham in “The Embarrassed Garden” (1958) and sought an ambiguous version of his own dance. You can feel the ritual.
The 1979 “Profile” is one of those rituals, an ingenious wonder for two couples who move in flat poses and formally astonish. Perhaps it’s in a program to show how Taylor remained avant-garde. Side by side with “Aureole”, it does it, along with giving a small taste to Taylor’s wide post “Aureole” range.
However, there is a difference between its consistent diversity and the stylistic whiplash of the two premieres. Finding a new work that fits Taylor’s repertoire can be a daunting task.
The talented Michelle Mansanalez’s “Hope Is the Thing With Feathers” is a mix of bird-related songs (Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds”, The Beatles’ “Blackbird”, as well as “Cucurucucú Paloma” and “Pajarito”). It is set to tape. Del Amor “). It is characterized by the movement of several birds — a poking isolation, a swooping flock. It’s sweet, sentimental, fluent and fun.
Shaking arms, swaying quality, a touch of cuteness: “hope” has something to do with “oleol”, but it goes against the chillier ones Taylor is working on. Peter Chu’s “Softer Landing Call” is from another world. It is characterized by being suffocating and encouraging the audience to say “I’m good enough”. These gambits are not avant-garde. They are fake.
With a soothing street-influenced style and a dance-punk band Liquid Liquid soundtrack, ACall looks more modern than you might remember from Taylor’s company performance. It has themes of drive, dancer love, and charming girl power. (I’m looking forward to seeing the little Madeline Ho defeat the big Lee Dufenek.) But that message about the oppressive being-the voice repeats the word “repeat” -it’s oppressive in itself. It’s obvious.
See the beginning and end of the Profile for lessons on how more sophisticated choreographers suggest repetitive threats with dramatic gestures as simple and complex as posture.
Paul Taylor Dance Company
Until Sunday at the Joyce Theater. joyce.org.